


And You Shall Be A Blessing

by YaeL (thesometimeswarrior)



Category: Jewish Scripture & Legend, מדרש | Midrash, תנ"ך | Tanakh
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Family, Ficlet, Gen, Mother-Son Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:41:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29690346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/YaeL
Summary: She never sees the seashore. When, nearly a century later, her son sees the sea, feels the grains of damp sand between his toes, counts each grain like the representatives of his own eventual offspring, it will be without her.
Relationships: Mother of Avraham | Abraham | Ibrāhīm & Avraham | Abraham | Ibrāhīm
Comments: 9
Kudos: 10
Collections: Purimgifts 2021, a lie strong and settled





	And You Shall Be A Blessing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Daegaer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/gifts).



> > _"I will bestow My blessing upon you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands on the seashore...All the nations of the Earth shall bless themselves by your descendants, because you have obeyed My command."_  
>  \--Genesis 22:17-18

She never sees the seashore. When, nearly a century later, her son sees the sea, feels the grains of damp sand between his toes, counts each grain like the representatives of his own eventual offspring, it will be without her. As a matter of fact, she will scarcely be a shadow in his mind—he’ll have left his memories of her with the idols in the family shop, with the land of his fathers, never mind that of his mothers. He will not think of her when he dips his feet into the ocean and envisions the generations that will spawn from his devotion.

And she will be gone by then. He’ll be an old man, after all. But she’ll think of him every moment until she departs; she knows this even now, as he is an infant swaddled in her arms. She may not ever have the opportunity to take him to the seashore, but she teaches him to walk among the drier sands of the desert surrounding Ur, holds his hands as small feet brush the grains, and at night, holds him up to see the stars, blazing numerous across that wide and brilliant sky.

The time will come that he will have children of his own. (She will never meet them, though. He will be old when they are born, after all, and she will be gone, and even if she weren’t, he’ll have left her long before without ever craning his head back.) He’ll hold his own sons, and kiss them both between their eyes. There will come a day, though, with his second son, the one that he loves, when that kiss will be tentative, awkward, and when God calls him away, it will be a relief. 

God will tell him that his descendents will be the means by which all the nations of the Earth will be blessed. His mother will not be there on that day. But if she were, she would hold him like she had when he was so much smaller, murmur in his ear, _I am not all the nations of the Earth, but you, my descendent, were always blessing enough._

**Author's Note:**

> _Stars Over the Seashore_
> 
> \--
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!!!!


End file.
